See, I know Eric from way back when he was an editor over at Cleveland Life, a local niche publication (AKA black rag). He wore bad suits, a potato-lye conk with copper red highlights and the devil's smile. Eric earned respect for being a hard-nosed, all-meat type of reporter and editor with barstool civics, if often his headlines were unconventional and his subjects a little tawdry. Maybe more than a little.

When he eventually began putting out his own local tabloid -- the Cleveland Avenger or something like that -- every other cover story seemed somehow related to under-aged girls having sex with grown men. Seriously. Who knows where he dug these gems up, but Eric had the pervert beat on lock. With headlines like "11-Year-Old Hooker Gets her Nappy Dug Out By 67-year-old Pimp," his paper caused a lot of uncharacteristic head-scratching in the Negro community. But he was civic-minded, too.

Eric banged the drum hard with allegations that the then-mayor of East Cleveland, Emanuel Ononuwor, was corrupt, and no one took him seriously until the charges came down. Eric was first-in on that story and the community appreciated it, setting the stage for his poltical ascent. Although it looked from the curb a lot like the Joker being elected mayor of Gotham City, it made sense to me that he would eventually win the mayoral seat. When I got word of it, I made the mistake of calling his City Hall office to congratulate him and asking for him by his first name. I was put on hold.

This is why he will ultimately be swept back into office for a second term.

Eric is kind of the Mussolini of the ghetto and his Ron O'neal-cum-Dolemite style of of public policy doesn't reasonate too well with everyone and has bought him a lot of enemies. But common folk appreciate it and are just smart enough to peep game and are not as homophobic as you think by miles. The streets have been talking about these rumored pictures for years. The only reason it's news is because a primary is upon us and somehow, these pictures materialized and leaked out to every barbershop, liquor store and juke joint in East Cleveland -- and to a few media outlets as well. If this doesn't scream political dirty trick, I don't know what does. The truth be told, he's done an above average job stopping East Cleveland from taking a final turn around the toilet bowl. Eric probably is a tranvestite, and he doesn't give an eff what you think about it. He's a bad emma-effer that way. The kind of dude you want in office to turn your city around. The worst thing he is doing is dressing up in women's clothes?

Whatever. I predict that Greg Norton will get his hat handed to him, and Eric will win by a landslide.

I never endorse politicians, but I'm from East Cleveland and feel like I have to represent.